United States

Funding into US startups has grown nearly tenfold over the past five years, reaching $283.0B in 2025. With $364.0B raised in the first 5 months of 2026, the full year is on track to land at $873.7B, a +209% change versus 2025. The chart below shows annual funding totals; the latest year is annualised from observed-to-date data and represents the renderer's projection, not a closed quarter.

Yearly totals mask the quarter-by-quarter rhythm. The chart below shows US startups funding raised in each of the last 21 complete quarters through Q1 2026. All bars are actual closed-quarter sums, no projections, no in-progress quarters.

US's share of global venture capital tracks how much of the world's startup capital lands in this market. In 2016, US startups accounted for 40.9% of worldwide VC funding; by 2026 the share had reached 78.3%. The chart below splits each year's total VC funding into US on the bottom and the rest of the market on top.

How capital deployed into US startups is split across round sizes. In the trailing four quarters, 83% of capital landed in scaleup ($100M+) rounds, 14% in breakout ($15–100M), and 4% across startups (under $15M). Each panel below stacks the canonical sub-bands across Q1 2022 → Q1 2026.

The most active investors in US startups ranked by number of disclosed rounds they've participated in within the sector. Y Combinator leads with 7,566 rounds, followed by Techstars at 1,867. The table shows the top ten with their firm type, in-scope round count, total portfolio size, and headquarters.

Two views of leadership in US startups: the most-funded companies all-time on the left, and the hottest companies right now by Dealroom Signal on the right. Total-funding figures include all capital sources tracked by Dealroom (VC plus grants, project finance, and other instruments). Signal is Dealroom's live growth ranking, these are the firms with the strongest recent momentum across team, timing, growth, and completeness.

How United States stacks up against its global VC peers, with United States highlighted. The chart ranks the top countries; alongside it, the leading Bay Area metro region leads the city ranking with $312.5B. Use the metric pills, and the dropdown, to switch view.

Where US startups VC-backed startups are based. Each marker is sized by the number of VC-backed startups HQ'd in that metro. Bay Area leads at 22,291, followed by New York City at 15,101. Scroll or drag to explore, pinch with two fingers on mobile.

Over the last 12 months (through Jun 2026), the largest VC rounds in US startups reveal where capital is consolidating. The table below lists the 15 biggest disclosed rounds by amount, with date, company, round type, and lead investors. Funding events without a public amount are excluded; acquisitions sit in the Unicorns & Exits section.

Which industries pull in the most venture capital across US startups, and where does the US punch above its weight versus the rest of the world? Use the toggle to switch between absolute VC funding and each industry's over/under-index, and to change the time window. Over the last 12 months (to end of Q1 2026), AI leads at $334.7B, and the US over-indexes only in AI (75% of US venture capital versus 38% across the rest of the world, 1.98×), and under-indexes most in Food, Gaming, Fashion relative to the rest of the world. Industries are tracked through Dealroom's industry tags, which overlap, a company spanning, say, AI and fintech is counted in both, so these show where capital concentrates, not a mutually exclusive split of the total.

US startups have minted 2,103 unicorns to date. Dealroom defines a unicorn as a company that has reached a $1B+ valuation or exit (verified and manually reviewed; other lists use different criteria, this is ours). Of those, 223 are decacorns, companies at a $10B+ valuation. The ecosystem also counts 1,626 thoroughbreds: companies generating $100M+ in revenue (a separate lens from unicorns, with some overlap). The chart below shows the cumulative count climbing each year, with the line tracking new unicorns minted in that year, peaking at 499 in 2021. On exits, the sector has produced 17,288 tracked acquisitions since 2010 representing $3.2T in disclosed value. Notable acquisitions in the data include VMware ($61.0B, 2022), followed by Anysphere | Cursor ($60.0B, 2026), X. ($45.0B, 2025).

Entrepreneurship is a power law. Of every US startup founded, only a fraction attract venture capital, and far fewer climb each successive funding level. This funnel traces VC-backed US startups from first cheque through to the rarest valuation outcomes. Mouth figures are annual means (2010–2024); pool stages count VC-backed companies founded since 1990 by total funding.

American universities are the engine room of the startup economy, the schools whose alumni found the most unicorns and venture-backed companies, and the research that spins out into them.

The patent portfolio behind US startups, granted patent families, intensity per capita, and where the IP concentrates.